Update: 11am, Friday 9 January Raif Badawi was publicly lashed 50 times after Friday prayers today. Handcuffed and shackled, Raif was led to a square in front of the al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah, watched by a crowd. He was lashed on his...

Who saw that coming? Last month, Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro appeared on TV, in carefully orchestrated, simultaneous broadcasts, to announce a prisoner swap. This was the start of a new era of rapprochement after more than...

After decades of blaming anyone else for the ecological disaster in the Niger Delta, Shell has been forced to point the finger at itself. Why else would the company make an out-of-court settlement of £55m and admit to telling lies...

It is not all doom and gloom. Because of you people have been freed, lives have been saved and justice has been done. Urgent Actions are at the heart of what we do and it is great when we can see what a difference they can make...

What’s the biggest reason you have for not supporting the death penalty? The straight morality of using killing to show killing is wrong? The issues around innocence and the finality of the death penalty? Cost? Its misuse? The torture...